QUETTA: A child died and three others were injured when a cracker went off in the Killi Barat area here on Monday.

According to the police, unidentified people in a vehicle hurled the cracker wrapped in a handkerchief on the children playing outside their house and fled. “One child, Hussain Bukhsh, was killed and two girls and a boy sustained injuries,” they said.

Rescue workers and law enforcement agencies personnel shifted the victims to Civil Hospital.

“I was inside the house when we heard an explosion; when I came outside my child was lying in a pool of blood while others were yelling for help,” said Shabir Hussain, father of the deceased. “We don’t know who they were and why they attacked my children.”

The injured were said to be out of danger.

Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri condemned the attack and expressed his anguish over the child’s death. He directed the security forces to arrest those behind the heinous crime.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Talking to media persons, CCPO Quetta Abdul Razaq Cheema said the family had temporarily migrated from Dera Murad Jamali and was residing in a rented house.

A guard in the area, Abdul Malik, said the device was thrown from a black vehicle and when children picked it up, it exploded with a big bang.

Police suspected a property dispute behind the incident as the owner of the house said he had been receiving threats from unknown persons.

Police have registered a case against unknown attackers.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2017